{"currencyCode":"CAD","itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":7.26,"ASIN":"B000068OCT","moqNum":1,"isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":13.99,"ASIN":"B0000C89GM","moqNum":1,"isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"B000068OCT::gEEdiogcBT4rNdtV41wbpyIRrMUXJaIFa2cjBRLnbrxLhMbM3iWap8Dj7pEDxRLOHWw8r8nmIup0vNdpv2O04d0LM82heZk71mBUKhdrreGYAnzSywHkszJm0UmcgEeLlmAXqDyfEqHUAWbU8bjQraVE0LXNxX48,B0000C89GM::t6xh7%2B4Yvx8WLCTdqsIo2yQ8brS9Z9BsJVIPr5hfBsXpUxvEzk5RPHa3m2wfqumVtkUYmyD%2FlRo5oNd23GPD%2Baf1C56%2B8DyeNqcE9QbKhlg%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"shippingDetails":{"xy":"sellers"},"tags":["x","y","z","w"],"strings":{"showDetails":"Show details","addToWishlist":["Add to Wish List","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List","Add all four to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart","Add all four to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","differentSellers":"These items are shipped from and sold by different sellers.","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price For Both:","Price For All Three:","Price for all four:"],"hideDetails":"Hide details","preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items","Pre-order all four items"]}}

Product Description

Hailed by audiences and critics around the world as mesmerizing (The Detroit News), this second installment of writer/director Godfrey Reggio's apocalyptic qatsi trilogy is quite simply one of the most magnificent visual and aural spectacles ever made (L.A. Daily News)! Combining stunning cinematography with the exquisite music of award-winning composer Philip Glass, Powaqqatsi is a breathtaking experience working on many levels'emotional, spiritual, intellectual andaesthetic (The Hollywood Reporter)! Bold, haunting and epic in scale, this extraordinary film calls into question everything we think we know about contemporary society. By juxtaposing images of ancient cultures with those of modern life, Powaqqatsi masterfully portrays the human cost of progress. It is a film that engages the soul as well as the mind; it is truly an absorbing experience (Movies on TV and Videocassette).

Most helpful customer reviews

Some reviewers have expressed confusion or displeasure over the message of this film. Having attended a question-and-answer session with the director, Godfrey Reggio, and having worked as an editor in the journalism field, I hope I can assist in interpretation. Here is mine in a nutshell: Exploitation produces poverty.The principle that the filmmakers were seeking to illustrate was that while colonization comes in diverse forms, it is always destructive in the end -- even if the means are through economic domination rather than brute occupation. So-called "civilized" societies prey upon the Third World for their own gain, thereby ravaging the spirit of its people, depleting the natural resources of its nations, and tainting the uniqueness of its cultures.The film reveals scenes that the U.S. media often fail to show -- the backbreaking labor and environmental destruction inflicted as offerings to the Almighty God of Profit. Worship at the altar of financial markets generates our wealth (the trilogy's first film, Koyaanisqatsi, covers technology- and consumer-based culture), yet as we acquire greater strength and contentment, our business practices shorten the life span and deteriorate the quality of life in weaker countries. The extraction and importation of their very vitality seems to be the fundamental wellspring for our Gross Domestic Product, essentially amounting to a lopsided transaction akin to parasitism.For contrast, the music for the soundtrack incorporates energetic elements of this highly valued commodity from faraway lands: pounding rhythms, intricate phrases, meditative passages, foreign melodies, exotic harmonies, and even a dynamic children's chorus. This soundscape was intended to provide a sense of the heart and soul of the camera's subjects, i.e.Read more ›

I was looking forward to the "statement" on culture that the packaging promised, but instead I watched what turned out to be a very long music video with many extremely disparate images juxtaposed to give some message that I wasn't getting. In fact, I'm not sure there was much of a message--the filmmakers might have intended there to be one, but it's buried in a mix of visual images that are certainly striking, but definitely not cohesive enough to make the message clear.The filmmakers also have decided to focus solely on the grim side of culture, and there are so few smiling faces here that it makes you wonder if two-thirds of the people in the world live each day with grim, depressed looks on their faces. By using slow motion so much, they tend to pull the dynamic side of life completely out of the picture, and it grows old very quickly. Where are the playing children? And as another reviewer said, they left out the abominable side of the third world, such as beatings and executions, and they've also left out the graft and corruption that make it difficult for anyone to help people in these countries.I felt all along that I was being manipulated, forced to watch images of their choice so that my worldview would become what they desired my worldview to be. As a film, this is much better watched in segments, music piece by music piece, perhaps, as it does grow old after half an hour or so. All in all, this is a beautiful effort, but beauty, of course, does not make for substance and depth (or even cohesion), which are elements that this film is lacking.

I truly enjoyed the first film in this trilogy and expected similar thunder from Powaqqatsi and was disappointed. I think once one has seen Koyaanisqatsi, it will naturally follow that one will want to see the other two films in the trilogy. They will likely be disappointed as well. P and N are interesting but not profound and revolutionary in the same way that K was.cheers!Ryan

Powaqqatsi (1988) is the second DVD in the Qatsi trilogy, an I suggest that you consider watching this release second. The first to view is Koyaanisqatsi (1983); the third, Naqoyqatsi (2002). With the filming of the trilogy taking over 20 years to complete, the advances in the music, technology and filming makes me suggest that you start from the beginning to watch how things have changed in that time.POWA (Powaqqatsi) focuses on life for people mainly in the southern hemisphere. Please also view my review of KOYA (Koyaanisqatsi), which I will complete shortly after submitting this. I plan to soon purchase NAQO (Naqoyqatsi) and will review that as well (obviously I found the film concept entertaining).KOYA focuses on the northern hemisphere's lifestyles of living with technology in all aspecfts of their lives while POWA shows life that is more driven by manual labor. Yet as the movie progresses, you see more and more hints of the introduction of technology, which will inevitably wind up permeating and consuming the current culture. Watch for the placement of a SEIKO billboard, which really stuck in my mind.It can be difficult not to feel some sense of pain for the people's lifestyles, but please stay open- minded to an understanding that perhaps the lifestyle that DP's Graham Berry and Leonidas Zourdoumis documented is what the subjects being filmed are most comfortable with. Watching POWA first, however, may take the whole trilogy out of order and context for you. That's why I suggest that you purchase the two- DVD set. And I'm sure that plans have been in the works to release the trilogy as a boxed set.Make certain also to watch director Godfrey Reggio's comments (highlighted with composer Philip Glass).Read more ›